Dissertation Research: The Reconstruction of Indigenous Health Systems in a West African Refugee Camp

本项目支持南卫理公会大学人类学专业学生的博士论文研究，研究传统医学在非洲塞拉利昂难民营的使用情况。这项研究将研究在营地内提供土著传统治疗的程度，以及这种治疗对一般保健做法和救济机构当局提供的西医使用的影响。在一个流离失所者营地进行为期13个月的民族志田野调查，包括初步人口普查、随机抽样150个家庭、20-30名管理人员和生物医学营地人员以及20名传统治疗师，学生将进行半结构化访谈、病史、一般口述生活史以及参与性观察。这些数据将由援助机构文件中的资料加以补充。这个项目很重要，因为它将分析医疗保健在难民营中的实际运作方式。由于全世界2700万难民中有45%以上生活在非洲，本案例研究对于解决机构如何通过与受影响社会的传统治疗系统合作而不是与之对抗来改善卫生保健具有重要意义。通过解决难民自身在构建本国医疗体系中的作用，这项研究将纠正西方机构的偏见，即难民人口是被动、无助的群体。因此，从这个项目中获得的知识将包括难民自己对自己和他们的处境的了解。这将为计划者在设计援助项目时提供有价值的信息。此外，该项目将增加国家对世界这一重要地区的专业知识。

This project supports the dissertation research of an anthropology student from Southern Methodist University, studying the use of traditional medicine in a refugee camp in Sierra Leone, Africa. The research will study the extent to which native, traditional healing is available in the camp, and the impact of such healing on health practices in general and the use of western medicine as provided by relief agency authorities. In thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in a displaced persons camp, involving a preliminary census, a random sample of 150 families as well as 20-30 administrators and biomedical camp personnel and 20 traditional healers, the student will conduct semi-structured interviews, illness histories, general oral life histories, as well as participant observation. This data will be supplemented by information from aid agency documents. This project is important because it will analyze how health care actually functions in a refugee camp. Since over 45% of the world's 27 million refugees are in Africa, this case study will be important in addressing how agencies can improve health care by working with, rather than against the traditional healing systems of the impacted societies. Through addressing the refugees' own role in constructing their health care systems, the study will correct the bias of western agencies' assumption that refugee populations are passive, helpless masses. Thus the knowledge from this project will include the refugees own understanding of themselves and their situation. This will provide valuable information for planners to draw upon in designing aid programs. In addition the project will add to the nation's expertise about this important region of the world.